


Sugar Skulls and Chocolate Bullets

by orphan_account



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Holidays, M/M, it's not angst in the end I promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-09
Updated: 2013-01-09
Packaged: 2017-11-24 06:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/631360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Merry Christmas,” Sebastian said and Richard giggled, flipping the pancake onto the plate and pouring out more batter, he didn’t have much left, he’d be able to sit down in a minute.</p><p>“Merry Christmas,” Richard chirped in return, moving his weight from foot to foot, barely able to stand still. Jim hadn’t let them get a Christmas tree or hang up stockings, he’d been mostly ignoring the holidays even though Richard had been singing Christmas Carols and watching Christmas movies since about halfway through November.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar Skulls and Chocolate Bullets

Richard was the one sleeping in the spare bedroom on Christmas Eve, which was good enough, he could hear the noises coming from Jim’s room (Sebastian said to think of it as  _their_ room but  everything in this flat belonged to Jim, including the people). He was awake almost embarrassingly early but… it was Christmas, how could you not wake up at seven on  _Christmas_?

Richard decided to stay in bed for a while, he knew Jim and Sebastian wouldn’t be awake soon anyway. It was rough, he was nearly buzzing with excitement, tossing and turning, he’d always loved Christmas, it was a day where he had an excuse to be happy, even if everything was miserable.

He got out of bed at eight, pulled on some socks and a jumper before sliding out into the hallway. He paused in front of the door to Jim’s bedroom and leaned in close. He heard talking, then silence for a long while and Sebastian moaning. Richard bit his lip and grinned, skipping into the kitchen. He was guessing he had about ten minutes to start breakfast.

He got the pancake mix out from the cupboard (he’d had to hide it in the back otherwise Jim would have thrown it out, he detested making breakfast a big meal) and threw everything into a bowl, getting his bag of chocolate chips from the freezer (he also had to hide that, Jim had an unquenchable sweet tooth).

He’d made about five pancakes when Jim and Sebastian emerged from the room, Jim already dressed in a nice suit looking incredibly pleased with himself and Sebastian close behind, shirtless, only wearing pajama bottoms, his hair messy and his cheeks still flushed.

“Morning,” Richard called cheerily, sprinkling chocolate chips onto a pancake. Jim didn’t answer, just pulled his phone from his pocket and started texting, sitting down at the table. Sebastian glared disapprovingly at Jim and sat next to him.

“Merry Christmas,” Sebastian said and Richard giggled, flipping the pancake onto the plate and pouring out more batter, he didn’t have much left, he’d be able to sit down in a minute.

“Merry Christmas,” Richard chirped in return, moving his weight from foot to foot, barely able to stand still. Jim hadn’t let them get a Christmas tree or hang up stockings, he’d been mostly ignoring the holidays even though Richard had been singing Christmas Carols and watching Christmas movies since about halfway through November.

“You’re in a good mood,” Sebastian said. Richard nodded with an implied ‘duh, of course I’m happy’.

“Breakfast,” Richard announced, grabbing the plate of pancakes off of the counters and bringing it to the table. He went to get plates and silverware for the three of them, grinning stupidly the whole time.

He knew it was childish to love Christmas as much as he did, but he always went out of his way to make other people feel happy (only because there were days when he couldn’t even force a smile) and this was a perfect chance to do that. It had become a game, to make Jim smile on Christmas,

“Sebby and I have a job today, I don’t know about him, but I’ll be out late,” Jim declared, tucking his phone away and Richard nearly dropped his fork.

“But Jim, you promised you two wouldn’t work today,” Richard nearly yelled, he could already see the day burning around him in flames. No, that wasn’t supposed to happen, he shouldn’t be alone on Christmas.

“Hm, well, evil never rests,” Jim answered coolly, cutting into his pancake and suddenly Richard didn’t feel very hungry.

“I’m… Okay, see you later, I guess,” he muttered, abandoning his plate and dragging his feet to the spare room . He crawled back under the blankets, trying to pretend he wasn’t overreacting. He nearly started crying, his gift for Jim this year had been amazing and now he’d have to wait until tomorrow, maybe even later and it just wasn’t the same.

Richard gave up on trying to not cry.

—-

Sebastian came and sat on he spare bed a few minutes later, shaking Richard’s shoulder softly. Richard sniffed and rubbed away the tears in his eyes, sitting up and looking at Sebastian.

“Hey, uh, I’m sorry… Sorry about Jim, but they’re playing the Muppet Christmas Carol movie at the cinema this evening, if you want to go. I’ll take you, it could be a date. Jim said it’d be fine.”

Richard blinked a few times and sighed, leaning his head on Sebastian’s shoulder. He was dressed for a kill, dark clothes and leather gloves and combat boots.

“Mm,” Richard moaned, wiping his eyes again. “Yeah, okay, we can go.”

Sebastian ran a hand through Richard’s hair and kissed his forehead. “See you later, darling. Take care of yourself.”

Richard watched Sebastian leave, staring at the door for another few minutes before laying back down and pulling the blankets over his head.

—-                                                             

At some point Richard moved to the couch, taking his duvet with him, curling up and watching all the stupid Christmas specials he could find and trying not to think about how he should have seen this coming, how last year had been wonderful (the three of them had stayed in bed all day) so this year had to be horrible, it was just karma balancing out the Universe.

Sebastian came home sometime after five, slumping down onto the couch next to Richard, pulling a corner of the duvet out from under him and leaning in close to him, his hands were cold and his clothes were slightly damp and Richard could feel goose bumps on his arms.

“Have you had lunch, honey?” Sebastian asked and Richard shook his head.

“Wasn’t really hungry,” he answered, leaning on Sebastian’s shoulder and trying not to think about how Jim wasn’t here.

“If I took you out to get hamburgers would you eat?”

Richard sighed and nodded. Sebastian kissed his forehead and said they should both go get dressed.

Richard was waiting by the door, mummifying himself in jackets and scarves and heavy boots when Sebastian came out of his room, wearing a forest green jumper and jeans.

“Aren’t you going to get too hot?” Sebastian asked and took Richard’s gloved hands, leading them outside. It had snowed a few days ago, but it was raining now, the streets covered in muddy slush.

“No,” Richard replied easily, letting Sebastian run to the curb and hail a taxi, then sliding inside next to him. “I get cold really easily.”

Sebastian just smiled and nodded.

—-

Richard didn’t eat much, just ordered chips and chewed slowly, watching Sebastian eat like he hadn’t been fed in days (he always ate like that after a kill, it was almost a bit scary). He tried to ignore the fact that they were eating fast food instead of… anything else, really. He ignored the fact that they weren’t at home, that Jim wasn’t with them.

Sebastian fell asleep halfway through the film, and Richard didn’t wake him up until the lights were back on.

“Hm, oh sorry, Jim kept me up late,” Sebastian apologized when Richard shoved his shoulder forcibly and jumped back a few steps (never wake an army man).

“Yeah, I know,” Richard sighed, and took Sebastian’s hand.

It was only half past eight when they got out of the theater, but Richard was ready to go to bed. He’d give Sebastian’s his gifts and try not to be too sad about it, he might as well give him Jim’s gift too, he’d be the first one to see him, he could give it to him. And anyway, Richard didn’t want to now, Jim had hurt him too much by working that day.

They pulled apart at the door, Richard peeling off his layers of clothes, feeling cool air on his skin and watching Sebastian watch him.

“Uh, I just wanna… go get your gifts then I’m going to bed, is that… Is that alright with you?” Richard asked quietly, sighing and feeling the whole disappointment of the day come crashing down suddenly, tears coming to his eyes again.

“It’s fine, honey,” Sebastian said, shrugging off his jacket. “I’ll be in the living room.”

Richard nodded numbly and went to go grab Jim and Sebastian’s gifts off the dresser. It would be better for him to give them to the boys in person, but two DVDs were enough. He’d also gotten them each a thing of candy, chocolate bullets for Sebastian and sugar cubes that looked like skulls for Jim.

Richard dragged his feet into the living room, pausing in the kitchen and…

“Jim!” Richard yelled, nearly dropping what was in his hands. Not only that, there was a Christmas tree in the corner, lighting up the darkened room with colored lights and stockings on the mantel and Jim was even wearing a Santa hat. Richard felt tears in his eyes again, but for a different reason.

“Merry Christmas,” Jim said with a warm smile as Richard jumped forward, wrapping his arms around his brother and kissing him full on the mouth.

They were both panting by the end of it, Richard burying his face in Jim’s neck and nearly sobbing, Jim had never done anything like this for him before, Christmas had always been only Richard’s effort.  _Everything_ had always only been Richard’s effort.

“Oh, honey, what’s wrong?” Jim asked, rubbing Richard’s back.  
            “I love you so much,” he laughed, kissing Jim again. He felt Sebastian tap his shoulder and turned around, laughing near hysterically, Sebastian had painted his nose red and was wearing a headband with reindeer antlers on it. Richard detached himself from Jim and went to hug Sebastian.

“I love you, too,” he told the sniper, leaning up and kissing the man’s nose gently.

“So?” Jim said. “Gifts? What’ve you got there, Richie?”

Richard stepped away from Sebastian and dropped his gaze to the floor. “Oh, uh, I wasn’t really… Okay, uh… I wrote you each a monologue, I… uh…” When he said it out loud, it sounded like a stupid thing to give to someone, a monologue, but he’d spent nearly a month working on each of theirs. “I filmed them and I wasn’t going to…. But I, uh, want to perform them in person.”

Jim and Sebastian glanced at each other and broke into simultaneous grins, going to sit on the couch. Richard swallowed, nervous all of a sudden, but he knew it would be fine, he’d practiced these for hours.

“Oh, uh, I also got you guys candy,” Richard said all of a sudden, giving each man his sweets. Richard hadn’t bothered with wrapping them, it was just candy. “I thought the skulls would be good for tea, if… For you know, when client come over and, Seb, I know you don’t really like chocolate, but uh… it made me laugh and I thought you might.. You know…”

Sebastian smiled warmly at him and Jim opened his bag, popping a skull into his mouth, getting a strange look from the other two, not many people were inclined to eating plain sugar.

“Thanks, Rich,” Sebastian said, still glaring at Jim, who rolled his eyes in return.

Without warning, Richard started reciting the monologue, standing up straighter and more confident. An ex-army sniper talking about his guns. He was obviously imitating Sebastian, the way his guns were nearly a fetish to him on their own, more than once Richard let out a near erotic moan that obviously made Jim uncomfortable and only made Richard feel more confident about the act.

When he was done there was silence and Richard bowed.

“You’re so cute,” Sebastian said simply and Richard blushed. Before he could reply Jim cleared his throat.

“That was marvelous, you really looked like you could be him in a different body, now do mine.”

Richard grinned and took a breath, adjusting his shoulders. This was less of an imitation and more of a caricature, a cartoon villain talking about fire and what he would do if he ruled the world. It was graphic and utterly terrifying, it had been difficult to write, but the way Jim’s eyes shone and he stuck another sugar skull in his mouth made Richard think he was enjoying it.

When Richard was done he was feeling a bit breathless with nerves and happiness. Jim and Sebastian applauded, Jim even whistled, which just made Richard blush. He was a fairly decent actor, he would have been in some bigger productions, but Jim says that was bad for them, since they had the same face.

Jim beckoned Richard close and Richard sat down next to Jim, leaning heavily on his shoulder, his feet in Sebastian’s lap.

“Oh, nearly forgot,” Jim said, standing up and pushing Richard onto Sebastian, disappearing into the main bedroom and returning with a wrapped gift, shoving it towards Richard. He took it in his hands, slowly peeling the tape off the wrapping paper and looking at the thing in his hands.

It was a book, a simple, blue, leather bound book. Richard opened it to the first page.

_The Complete Fairytales of the Brother’s Grimm._

“Well, since I burnt your old copy, I thought this would be fitting,” Jim said and sat down again. Richard just stared at the book, hands running over the title page, feeling like his chest might literally explode, he was so happy. He was nearly shaking as he turned and kissed Jim again.

“I love you,” Richard said, then turned to Sebastian. “I love you both so much I can’t even put it into words.”

Sebastian leaned forward and took his turn kissing Richard before the three of them settled on the couch, Richard clutching the fairy tales to his chest, watching the lights on the Christmas tree and feeling each other close. And, to be honest with himself, Richard thought it might have been the best Christmas ever.


End file.
